Hermione's Birthday
Harry walked into Honeydukes, hoping to stockpile some sweets on the first Hogsmead trip of the year. He came around an isle to the caramel balls and ran into Ron instead. Both boys stared at each other in surprise.
“I thought you were with Hermione?” Harry said.
“She told me she was spending the day with you.”
“Why would we spend the day together without you?” Harry asked.
“Well, we wouldn’t either, me and her.” Ron stuttered.
“But where is she then?”
Hermione was sitting in the hog’s head, with a large mug of butter beer and a club sandwich in front of her. It was the Saturday after her fifteenth birthday, and her dad was taking her out for a special luncheon. They’d already spent the whole morning together. They snuck out of the castle and took the scenic walk down to Hogsmead early in the morning. They talked about school, whether Hermione wanted to be a healer, an auror, or an apothecary, and what was going on between her and Draco.
“Honestly, Dad, it’s nothing.”
“Right, I forgot you have a crush on the Weasley boy.”
Hermione gave a groan.
“Just because you like him, doesn’t mean I have to like him,” Snape said. “In fact, it usually means the exact opposite as that.”
They walked along a stream and Hermione balanced on the rocks as Snape walked beside, hands stuffed into his corduroy pockets. They made it to the Hogshead just in time for lunch. Snape had reserved the whole place for the two of them, not much of a feat since it was so small, and since it was usually completely empty. The food was far worse than that in the three broomsticks, but it was worth it to have somewhere quiet to sit, neither of them having to fear being seen by students or teachers.
Afterwards, Hermione ate a slice of cake and Snape slid a present wrapped in newspaper across the table. She pulled the paper off of it, a heavy hardcover book, old leather wrapping around the binding.
“I thought you’d like it.” Severus said, “It’s sort of the wizard version of a fantasy novel. It’s a lot like the lord of the rings.”
“I’ve never heard of it.” Hermione flipped to the title page.
“It’s a wizard novel. Wizards write fiction too, you know.”
“Thanks.”
Hermione made sure to slip back into the griffindor common room before anyone else was back from hogsmead, she ran upstairs, put her new book away, slipped into her pyjamas, slid under her covers, and got ready to write her mom a letter. Her magic parchment she shared with Draco was wrapped up with her blank parchment and she looked at it, but Draco hadn’t written anything to her in three days, since he kissed her. She was hoping he’d at least say happy birthday to her, but maybe he didn’t know it was her birthday. She slid this parchment away and picked up a blank piece and her one ball-point pen. No matter how long she went on in Hogwarts, she always preferred using a regular pen. She used a quill for everything in the wizarding world, but she loved it when she could write things for the muggle world and use a normal old pen.
Hi Mom and Dad, Hermione Wrote. Thank you for the birthday card and the gift. I’ve had a good day so far. My father took me out for lunch as it was a hogsmead weekend, and I have considerably less homework this weekend than last. The weather here is beginning to get cold already, and I suppose it will be an early winter. How are things there? Crookshanks misses his muggle cat food a lot, I guess the stuff here isn’t as good. I’ve been good though, apart from one thing that has been bothering me. I wanted to ask Mom, and I wish I could do this at least on the phone, but I was wondering, have you ever liked two boys at the same time? I don’t want you to worry or anything, as I’m sure nothing will happen with either of them. I’m not really ready for anything serious like that, but I’d feel a lot better if I knew which to choose, or at least that it was normal. If you’ve got any advice, I’d appreciate it. And please don’t tell my father if you happen to talk to him. He’d just worry.
Love, Hermione.
Hermione heard people moving about downstairs in the common room finally. She slipped the letter into an envelope and sealed it. She laid it on her bedside table then picked up a tiny box of Fred and George’s skiving snackboxes, she dug around until she found a little blue gum drop and tore a tiny corner off of it. She found that if you used just the tiniest amount, you broke out in a cold sweat and turned a little green, but it didn’t really affect how you felt. A moment later, she heard the boys running up the stairs. There was a loud knock at the door followed by Ron’s tentative voice, “Hermoine, er, you in there?”
“Yes.” Hermione called.
“Are you, um, alone?”
“You can come in, Ron.”
Ron opened the door to the girl’s dormitory and walked in, followed closely by Harry.
“We were wondering where you’d got to.”
“I wasn’t feeling very well so I stayed in bed. Sorry I didn’t come down and tell you before you left.”
“That’s alright,” Ron said. They were still standing a few feet from her bed. “Wait here a second,” Ron said, running out of the girls’ dormitory and heading toward his own room.
Harry looked back to make sure Ron was gone, “Were you really here all day?”
“Yes, I told you I was sick.”
“I just thought, maybe you were out with that boy again.”
“No, I haven’t seen him again.” Hermione frowned, “To be honest, I don’t think he’d want to be seen with me in public.”
“Why, what’s wrong with him?” Harry asked, “Is he way older than you or something?”
“Something like that.” Hermione said.
Ron came back into the dormitory with something in his hand. The other two stopped talking. Ron came to the head of Hermione’s bed and handed over the tiny slip of paper.
“Happy birthday, and all that.” Ron said.
It was a blank slip of paper from the library with Professor Binns’ signature at the bottom. It was the slip you needed filled out in order to check out a book from the restricted section, but this one was blank apart from the signature.
“I tricked him into signing it when he was on one of his rants last week. That way, next time you want to sneak something out you can just fill out the rest of it.” Ron said, smiling.
“Ronald, you’re not supposed to do that.” Hermione said.
“Fine, I’ll just take it back then if you don’t want it.”
“No, that’s alright.” Hermione tucked it in with her spare parchment.
“Oh, I got you something too.” Harry pulled out a bag of mixed sweets from Hogsmead, and a bottle of butter beer. “Seeing as you missed going this weekend. Happy birthday.”
“Thank you,” Hermione said, “Thanks to both of you.”
“I guess we should let you get some rest.” Ron said. “You sure you don’t want to go to the hospital wing?”
“No, it’s just a stomach bug. I’m sure I’ll be fine by dinner.”